After a while he respectfully advised that it was no longer necessary for me to sit on him; that he could not possibly swim back to his town, nor walk through the mangrove swamp on either side of the river, and besides he was needed at the oar for he knew that the white man was in a hurry to reach Gaboon. As to the proposal that I change my seat I told him that what was at first a matter of necessity was now a matter of choice and that I could not be as comfortable sitting on a thwart. But one oar was idle; and besides I was deeply moved by his anxiety to get me to Gaboon as quickly as possible. So I relented and changed my seat, while he crawled out and took the oar. I had a few choice bananas, which I asked him to eat with me, and before he had finished eating we were the best of friends; and so we were ever afterwards. The launch _Dorothy_ (which succeeded the _Evangeline_) I usually kept anchored well out on the bay, giving her plenty of cable. It was always hard to get out to her in the evening and I preferred to start up the river in the quiet of the morning but that was not always possible. One evening we were going out to her in a canoe, preparatory to a journey, when the sea was rougher than usual, and we had a misadventure that was no joke at the time. In the canoe were eight natives and several trunks and other baggage. Ndong Koni was in the stern. We soon saw that we were overloaded but we went on, the canoe taking water more and more rapidly. “We can’t make it,” said some one; “let us turn back.” But to attempt to turn in such a sea would surely have swamped us; besides, we were more than half-way to the launch. I gave the order to go on, and every man to pull for his life. I stood up and urged the men to their best. But it was in vain. The canoe settled deeper in the water, which soon came almost to my knees. At last it went under, in eighteen feet of water, and a rough sea that no white man could swim in. Dear reader, if you should ever find yourself in such a situation, a hopeless distance from the shore and the craft sinking into the depths beneath your feet, let me advise you above all things to be perfectly calm. Don’t worry. Worry will not help in the least. I turned to Ndong Koni and said: “Ndong, if my life is to be saved I guess it is up to you to do it.”